Photographer Hugh Brownstone and Oberwerth Made a Luxurious Camera Bag With a NYC Twist
Photographer, educator, and cofounder of Helium Design Lab, Hugh Brownstone, has teamed up with luxury bag company Oberwerth to create “The Street Bag — Hugh Brownstone.” Two years in the making, the bag combines the best of a backpack and a sling into a single, agile design.
Photographer Regina Immes founded Oberwerth 13 years ago to create bespoke, extremely high-quality bags for photographers, built to last a lifetime. That dedication to craftsmanship led Brownstone to his first Oberwerth bag and, over a decade later, to working directly with the company on The Street Bag.
“What I really love about The Street Bag is that it has been a true collaboration,” Brownstone explains. “A bag we designed together from the ground up around the way I work on the streets and during the journey there and back.”
Brownstone admits it won’t be the bag for everyone — no bag ever is, he says — but it “might just be the bag for you.”
The bag targets photographers who want the speed of a sling-style bag, something they can quickly pivot, open, and access their gear, but don’t want something lacking in carrying capacity. Agile bags are often too small for photographers with a lot of gear. Brownstone likes to have an array of lenses on hand. Who doesn’t?
The Street Bag’s layout was designed around Brownstone’s own Leica kit (Oberwerth really got its start catering to Leica photographers), including Leica M and Q bodies, plus a Leica SL3 kit with larger autofocus lenses.
As Oberwerth explains, the lower compartment can hold a set of primes, a larger zoom lens, or lenses alongside a flash, finder, and other photography essentials.
The upper compartment carries a pair of cameras with attached lenses and is instantly accessible via a magnetic closure with a secondary zipper for added security. There’s a front compartment with a weather-sealed zipper and a storage slot for an iPad.
It has luggage pass-through as well and protective feet on the bottom to keep the leather from touching water when the bag is set down on a wet surface. It’s a nice touch.
The bag measures 30 x 29 x 20 centimeters (12 x 11 x 8 inches) on the outside and has a 10-liter carrying capacity. Interior dimensions are specifically 28 x 25 x 15 centimeters (11 x 10 x 6 inches). The bag weighs 1,500 grams (3.3 pounds) when empty.
Brownstone routinely uses two different cameras on his photography expeditions, so he wanted to design a bag that works for him, knowing it would work extremely well for many others, too.
As is par for the course for Oberwerth, a company that insists on high-quality German and European leather materials, environmentally conscious tanning practices, and handcrafted manufacturing, the Street Bag is not cheap. It costs $1,699, putting it out of reach for many but appealing to those who value quality and are willing and able to pay for it. It comes with a lifetime warranty on materials and workmanship, provided the buyer registers their bag within eight weeks of purchase.
The Oberwerth Street Bag by Hugh Brownstone comes in double-tanned black cowhide leather with a New York City-inspired design touch. The interior is taxi-cab yellow, an eye-catching homage to the place where Brownstone and so many other street photographers have felt most inspired and done some of their best work. It was Brownstone’s wife and fellow (excellent) photographer Claudia’s idea to make the interior such an iconic color that is practically inseparable from New York City itself. Getting the color right was quite the undertaking.
The Oberwerth Street Bag — Hugh Brownstone launches today and is available through Leica, B&H, and, of course, Oberwerth itself. As mentioned, it costs $1,699.
Image creditsOberwerth, Hugh Brownstone
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